Nina Virginia Hassler

Lifetime Plymouth resident Nina Virginia Hassler, 75, who lived at 16369 Pretty Lake Road, Plymouth, since 1956, died, following a courageous three-year battle with cancer, at 4:50 a.m. on Tuesday, July 3, 2001. Nina died in St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, South Bend, where she had been a patient for three weeks. She was born the daughter of Harvey E. and Alice D. Bolenbaugh Grunawalt on October 1, 1925, in Donaldson, Ind. She graduated from West High School with the class of 1943, and later took business and computer courses at Ancilla College. On July 20, 1945, Nina and Dewey J. Hassler were married in Crown Point, Indiana. Her work career started at the old Glove factory; she later worked at Meck’s, then Schlosser Brothers Creamery-Hawthorne Mellody until its’ closing. She retired in 1990, following ten years of service in the offices of the Del Monte Corp. She loved music, reading the latest fiction books and strolls around Pretty Lake. An accomplished pianist, she played at her church, the Trinity United Methodist, and sometimes she and her daughter, Nancy, would play duets. A fifty-year member of the Trinity United Methodist Church, she was active in the Builders Class and with the United Methodist Church Women, helping with dinners and other projects. A member of the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary, always concerned for others, she volunteered clerical work for all of the veterans service organizations. She also assisted with her husband at Northern Indiana Legal Services and together they were members of the Michiana Gem and Mineral Society. Nina is survived by Dewey, her spouse of almost 56 years and by their two daughters: Nancy L. and Don Ferris, Plymouth and Nanette L. and Jim Saboski, South Bend. Dicky L. Grunawalt, a brother of Norfolk, Virginia, and several nieces and nephews also survive. She was preceded in death by her parents and by a brother, Gerald Grunawalt, who was killed while in the service of his country in 1944. Visitation with Nina’s family will be from 4 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 5, 2001, in the Johnson-Danielson Funeral Home, 1100 N. Michigan St., Plymouth, Ind. Funeral services, conducted by Mike Burroughs of the Trinity United Methodist Church, will be at 11 a.m. on Friday, July 6, 2001, in the funeral home. Burial will be in the Tyner Cemetery, Tyner, Ind. Memorial gifts in Nina’s memory may be made to the Trinity United Methodist Church’s Elevator Fund.